Admirabile Signum

Midnight Mass, Solemnity of Christmas

Luke 2:15-20

Merry Christmas!

I gave myself an opportunity to redecorate my Belen or crèche, hoping to realize the message of the Holy Father, Admirabile Signum, by encountering the Lord in the most intimate way possible.  I was hoping for a deeper encounter with the Lord this Christmas.

I just realized that it is God who opens the way for that encounter, not I. He talks to us in the simplest of all events and realities.  The account where St. Francis asked to relive the experience of the nativity at Greccio where the people reenacted it and the Eucharist celebrated by a priest are closest to that encounter.  What do we experience?  "God’s tender love," explains Pope Francis.

Let every iconography touch our hearts as we learn about Christmas:

1. The dark night and the landscapes – in contrast to the simple cave of Bethlehem. All lures, all darkness in life couldn’t conceal what lies inside it. 

2. The shepherds – we can’t be fooled by money anymore; rather, what we need is the revolution of love and sharing and tenderness.  The shepherds symbolize the simplest picture of everyday life - of the market vendor every morning fighting off the comforts of sleeping just to wake up to work, the student waking up each morning to beat the deadlines, the father who despises his work, yet loves it all for the sake of his children; the wounded coping up each morning trying to understand why he/ she became sick or wounded or ostracized.  They are the persons closest to you and me.

3. Mary – how she was overshadowed with the greatest power on earth; but the words came out of her lips, “I am the maidservant of the Lord.” Let us abandon ourselves to God’s will.

4. St. Joseph – the guardian who vowed to protect the Holy mother and Child with his life; protector and teacher to his son Jesus.

5. And last but not the least, the divine Infant – who has the power to change the world in an instant, but decides to use the most ordinary to radiate his love.

In life’s simplicity, we are called to be God’s disciples if we want to attain the ultimate meaning of
life, in loving God and neighbour just as Jesus loves us!